Things in Dayton

I'm feeling pretty crummy for the fourth day in a row. Started with a sore throat and stuffy head, now the congestion has moved into my chest giving me a rattling cough. Ugh...

We've also had a trying week in regard to the townhouse we left behind in Fort Myers. As many of you already know, we started trying to rent it out as soon as we learned we were moving. After four months and no lookers (because of a saturated market) we decided to bite the bullet and list it for sale - knowing it would be a Short Sale. We made payments as long as we possibly could and stayed in constant communication with the bank. As a matter of fact, we were in touch with the bank BEFORE we ever missed a single payment to let them know our circumstances. The response: "You are currently not in default on your loan. Therefore, not a priority. We are only working with homeowners in default 90 days or more."

Since we'd carried two house payments as long as we could (mortgage in Florida, rent in Ohio), come January we could no longer make the mortgage. Again, we filed the proper paperwork and hired a real estate agent that specializes in Short Sales.

We received and accepted an offer for sale in April and submitted it to Wachovia along with a VERY long list of information they demanded. After months of following up via phone calls, faxes, emails, and letters - meeting their EVERY demand - we were consistently told that they were inundated and had not assigned a loan negotiator to our file.

Then at the beginning of August we received a letter in the mail saying that a final foreclosure has been issued and it will be sold in foreclosure on Aug 27. I immediately called our Realtor to find out WHAT THE HECK???

She was stunned and said she'd find out ASAP what was going on. She spoke with the bank and found out that the loss mitigation department had NO IDEA we had a short sale submitted. They said that they would put a "stay" on the foreclosure if we submitted updated paperwork since everything was "outdated" from the April submission. We did so, immediately, and once again played the waiting game. Meanwhile, our Realtor was in contact with the bank on a DAILY basis.

Then last Tuesday (8/25) the negotiator the Realtor had been working with added 2 additional documents to the "MUST HAVE" list before they would officially postpone the foreclosure. Negotiator said we had to have it in by 3pm on Wednesday (8/26) and we complied. Then on Friday (8/28) our realtor received a phone call followed by an email, stating that all information needed for a complete package was received "too late" to submit to the attorneys and postpone the foreclosure.

The foreclosure went as originally scheduled on Thursday (8/27) - screwing the buyers out of the house, our realtor out of ANY compensation for her eight months of hard work and us out of any chance to salvage the damage to our credit.

Our realtor called me with the news while I was on the road for work and I had to pull over b/c I was sobbing so hard. This is the most infuriating situation I've ever been in. We followed all the rules and not only paid by losing our home and credit...but now, Eric's opportunity to find a better job could be compromised because of bad credit. We've found (through personal experience) that more and more corporations are giving credit scores and history a lot of weight in the hiring decision - even if all the other job criteria is met.

I know "this too shall pass". And I'm glad that it's over, in spite of the means, but right now I'm furious and am mourning the loss.